Local agency seeks contract extension to provide cancer screening

The Alliance for Women and Children is asking the Texas Department of State Health Services to extend its contract to provide breast and cervical cancer screenings for six months, Executive Director Toni Brown said Thursday.

The alliance, which had been providing the screenings for women who were uninsured and unable to afford the services since 1991, was notified May 31 by DSHS that its contract would not be renewed at the end of the fiscal year on June 30. That would mean the alliance’s 1,000 clients in a 36-county area would have to find other health care providers. Brown said the alliance took about 100 new applications a month.

“We will be reaching out to other direct service providers in the area to ensure that clients have continued access to services,’’ said an email from Christine Mann, DSHS assistant press officer.

Brown said it wasn’t feasible to establish a clinic at the alliance, which provides other services such as after-school child care.

“As sad as we are about losing the contract, we want to make sure our ladies have continued health care,” Brown said. The facility is working now with its 31 subcontractors to ensure that there is continuity in such health care, she said.

“We want to make sure there is a continuity of services. Some of these women have been with us more than 20 years and we’re going to make sure they’re going to be cared for. We’ve developed a close relationship with them,” Brown said.

Dr. Len Tadvick, a physician in Abilene who worked with the alliance, said the decision by DSHS would create a hardship not only on the clients but on local doctors who pick up the business.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” he said. “The alliance did a great job. There’s more than just giving the test. There’s the follow-up phone calls and all of the paperwork. It’s a logistical nightmare.”

Tadvick said he thought it was unlikely that any single doctor could take the place of the alliance.

“I don’t see how one doctor could,” he said. “Maybe there is someone, but I couldn’t ask my staff to take it on.”

Brown said she did not know when DSHS would decide on whether to extend the contract. She said DSHS began contacting physicians in the area this week about providing the cancer screening services that had been done at the alliance.

While Brown guaranteed the cancer screening clients would receive care even after they leave the alliance, she was less sure about how the cuts would affect its employees.

“That’s a good question,” she said. “We’ll be meeting to discuss what direction we’re going, but I can’t say what that is now. Our contract is through the end of this month, and it takes 60 days to make the transition, so everyone will be here through the end of August and we hope through the end of December. We’ll certainly try to place people in other jobs,” she said.